Getting Into D&D 5e Adventures

The party spent some of the morning hiking in the mountains when they finally came across the Dwarven Excavation site.  They did a search of the canyon and the Druid rolled a nat 20!  They found a lost pickax and were able to identify a set of orc tracks and two sets of heavy booted tracks.  I used most of the text descriptions from the quest in the book for the areas.  Here are some of my notes.  The one thing that didn’t fit into my notes was that the adventuring party didn’t make themselves known until they snuck up on Dazlyn and Norbus in the Courtyard of the temple.  I used two matching dwarf figures as the greedy looking statues beside the entrance to the temple.

“Some of the group have trouble sleeping the rest of the night and others find sleep easier knowing that you’ve defeated an evil foe. In the morning you break camp and head into the mountains. After a few hours you enter a rocky canyon

Read Arrival on pg 22 Dazlyn and Norbus greet them if the party announces themselves.

E1: If the canyon is searched, The canyon is strewn with rubble and only has a few tough scraggly weeds If searched they see a lone set of fresh humanoid foot prints and two older sets of prints made with sturdy boots

E2: Ruined Settlement: Nothing is nown about this settlement including it’s name, Yet, It looks like there was an avalanche long ago and buried the settlement. We’ve cleared much of the rubble. You see a pony and equipment near an empty, rubble-filled well. Searching reveals a rusted old key and an iron ring

E3: Courtyard and temple Read description pg 22 Dazlyn and Norbus, say that they are willing to give you two matching Sending Stones if you will go into the temple and help get rid of a strange creature that attacked us. Be careful, because earlier in the morning an orc wandered into the temple as we his and we haven’t seen it come back out. We’d like to learn more about this temple and are willing to split anything found before we all leave for Phandalin.”

The party agreed to help Dazlyn and Norbus continue their excavation after clearing out the Temple of the unknown monster inside. They first entered the foyer and examined the secret passage the dwarves had discovered.  Then they decided to move into the main temple room.

The party saw the skeleton and didn’t realize that it was the devoured orc.  I used some pillars from the Dungeons and Lasers Land of the Giants set and an altar from the new HeroQuest boardgame for the temple interior.  They also spotted the Ochre Jelly hanging from the ceiling.  They spent some time thinking of how to deal with the possibility of the skeleton reviving and what they should do with the jelly.

Sir Richard decided to throw his hand axe at the jelly.  Damaging it, but causing it to split in two.

The Druid wild shaped into a spider and climbed up the walls and over to pillar to attack one of the split jellies.  The Warlock and Druid were able to make quick work of the monster.

The party did a search of the temple, not rolling well.  They searched the altar and I gave them a bonus to their roll and had them discover a secret drawer filled with gems.  The Druid examined a pillar where secret compartment is listed in the adventure.  I decided to have it contain a parchment with ancient dwarven text written on it.  The party decided to get the dwarves from outside the temple to read the text.  I was able to give some background on the temple and the religion to everyone.

Next the party offered to help the dwarves continue their excavation.  The dwarves asked them to continue to search for secret passages…and they kept failing their rolls.  The Druid began examing near the temple doorway and finally rolled high.  I had the Druid find the first secret passage.

The party began exploring and came across more passages and rooms.  They took a mid day break and met with the dwarves for a meal.  The Dwarves shared that they finally broke through the passage they were digging in and asked the adventurers to explore there.  Below are my notes from these locations.

“E6: Partially collapsed room. A faint light can be seen through the rubble

E8: You see three stone bed frames against the east wall

E9: Vestry: You see a stone font on the south west wall and a stone wardrobe against the east wall. Inside the wardrobe are two Suits of red Leather Armor with golden studs.

E10: You see a skeleton half buried in the rubble. It wears tattered and torn red leather armor with gold studs

If searched they find a GLOWING tiny jeweled dagger on a silver chain. Inscribed in Dwarvish Runes “Greed is Good” worth 50 gp”

The party continued their exploration of the temple’s secret passages and came across the passage containing another Ochre Jelly.  The party had to coordinate their movements due to the tight quarters, but between the druid in bear form and the fighter, the party was able to defeat the monster.

“E7: Secret Tunnel: An Ocrhe Jelly lurks in the rubble”

The dwarves helped the party clear away the last temple passage that had collapsed.  Knowing that there might be danger, the dwarves went outside the temple and urged the part to continue exploring.
The party entered the room..

“E11: You see the remanants of a destroyed statue on one side of the room. Standing opposite in the north of the room is a stature of a dwarf with horns, that stares greedily at a glowing green gem in its hands.”

The written adventure has the statue with the gem explode as a trap.  The party began contemplating the best way to deal with the statue if it came to life so they could grab the gem and survive.  I decided a living statue was much more fun than an exploding statue.  I gave the statue the stats of an ogre and had slashing do 1/2 damage to it. The fighter had the pickax at the ready near the destroyed statue (in case it reformed), the Druid shifted into a bear to grab the gem and the Warlock waited in the middle to help when needed.  The bear grabbed the gem and I had the statue grab onto the paw (grappled).  I ended up rolling a 1 for my first attack with the statue and decided that it broke it’s hand with the gem off, still holding onto the bear’s paw.  The statue ignored all other characters, only attacking the bear, due to the gem still being in the bears paw.  As the statue began to take more damage I had glowing cracks begin to form on it.  The statue did explode once it was defeated, causing some damage to the heroes.

The party left the temple with their treasure and met up with the dwarves.  They all readied their gear for the long trip back and decided to rest the night at the temple so they could make it back to town in a single day.  In the morning they noticed 3 orcs approaching.  These orcs were looking for their friend that was scouting a new home location for their tribe.

“Leaving the temple, you see three orcs approaching What do you do​?“

The party hid and prepared for battle.  The fight went well for our heroes and they suffered minimal damage.

As the party and dwarves began traveling down the mountain they spotted a white dragon flying out of the woods clutching a goblin in its claws.  The party waited until the dragon was out of site before continuing to Phandalin.